Federal Minister for Family Affairs Lisa Paus calls for overcoming the unequal treatment of women and men. “We still live in conditions of patriarchy, to which we must say goodbye,” the “green” politician said in an interview with the Tagesspiegel newspaper.
“For me, patriarchy will end when women are economically and politically equal, when they have half the power, and when gender-based violence is no longer seen as a harmless act, but is recognized and punished as a patriarchal model of thought and behavior. said Federal Family Affairs Minister Lisa Pause.
The politician made her scathing remarks against the backdrop of “Equal Pay Day”, celebrated on March 7, when she talks about the unequal pay between men and women and underlines the urgency to overcome these conditions. On the eve of International Women’s Day, this topic seems even more relevant.
According to the new calculation
According to new data, the pay gap between men and women is wider today than previously thought. Taking into account factors such as working time and participation in the labor market, it is 39%. According to the Federal Statistical Office in Wiesbaden, the structural wage gap between men and women is only greater in Germany in a few EU countries.
Last year, the net (gross) pay difference per hour worked, called the Gender Pay Gap, was 18%. In other words, on average, women earned 18% less per hour than men. According to statisticians, the current situation is due, among other things, to the fact that women are more likely to work in lower-paying industries and professions.
Part-time work
Women tend to work in service, health and social professions. “Working in these fields – compared to purely male occupations – is generally associated with lower earnings,” says Anja Rossen of the Institute for Employment Research (IAB). “Also, women are more likely to work in small businesses.”
However, the “main cause” of the structural pay gap is also the high proportion of women working part-time, explained the Federal Statistical Office. So, last year, men spent an average of 148 hours a month on paid work, and women – only 121 hours. The time difference between the sexes begins to increase with the arrival of the first child (on average at the age of 30.5 years). After that, women often shorten their working hours, while men tend to increase them.
While the role of the classic housewife may be considered obsolete, women still do the majority of unpaid household and care work, usually in addition to their jobs. On average, according to the latest Federal Government Equality Report, men spend 53% less time on these unpaid tasks.
When it comes specifically to parenting, cleaning, cooking, shopping, family organization and housekeeping, men are even two-thirds less active in heterosexual couples than women.
In addition, according to statisticians, the generally lower employment rate of women also negatively affects medium and long-term earnings. The latest data on the so-called Gender Hours Gap is from 2021: compared to 79.4% of men, only 72.1% of women of working age were in paid employment.
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